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paper the marks of a black-lead pencil. It must therefore be of 

 singular use to those who practice drawing. It is sold by Mr. 

 Naune, mathematical instrument maker, opposite the Royal 

 Exchange. He sells a cubical piece, of about half an inch square, 

 for three shillings, and he says it will last several years." 



350. In 1820 its singular elastic and water-proof properties 

 attracted much attention, and led to various experiments, which 

 resulted in Mr. Mackintosh of Glasgow presenting to the public, 

 in 1823, his well-known Mackintosh. 



351. Up to this date the raw material was nearly entirely im- 

 ported from South America, though Dr. George Gladstone, F.C.S., 

 tells us that an article almost identical was known to be procur- 

 able in India, having been discovered by Dr. Roxburgh, in Assam, 

 about 1809. But for the exhibition of Dr. Forbes Royle, he goes 

 on to say, — " the cost of Indian caoutchouc must have remained 

 much longer in obscurity, for when a gentleman up-country sent 

 some to his agents in Calcutta, they wrote in reply that the article 

 being unknown in this market, we are sorry we can give no idea 

 of its value." This happened in 1828, when it was selling in London 

 for two shillings per lb. By 1840, it had become a regular article 

 of export, and by its competition had considerably reduced the 

 price of the South American caoutchouc. The various uses to 

 which this staple is turned, which range from a baby's tooth -ring 

 to a railway carriage buffer, are too generally known to need 

 cataloguing here ; but the magnitude and importance of the trade 

 will be best appreciated when I state that the total import of 

 india-rubber into the United Kingdom rose from three hundred 

 and forty thousand odd pounds weight in 1845, to over five mil- 

 lions of pounds in 1855 ; since then public need and mecha- 

 nical ingenuity have combined to extend its uses, and fortunately 

 fresh natural stores have been discovered, which alone have equal- 

 lized demand and supply, and moderated the market value. Her 

 Majesty's Secretary of State for India, now, seeing the probable in- 

 creasing demand for india-rubber in connection with the require- 

 ments of State railways and other operations in which the Govern- 

 ment has a direct interest, has thought fit to urge upon the Indian 

 Government the necessity of taking time by the forelock, and 

 establishing plantations of Ficus elastica and other india-rubber- 

 yielding trees whenever practicable, and among the foremost to take 

 the field has been the local administration of British Burma. 



352. In Burma the trade in caoutchouc is but of yesterday's 

 date, as will be gathered from the following quotation, extracted 

 from the Political journal of the agent at Mandalay, dated 22nd 

 January 1873 :— 



